Spiritually Empty

Since I'm at work and unable to upload pictures, I decided to post this little blog entry.
As most of you, I too have some resolutions for the new year
1. sell my house
2. become more organized
3. cook more
4. Slow to anger and speech and quick to listen (which will only happen if I do more of number 5)
5. Learn a new passage of scripture every week. 
This last one is what I am focusing on here. Being the wife of a husband in ministry is more trying than I every thought. I never imagined the spiritual warfare or how emotionally empty it could make Brandon. We have learned so much about ourselves and our marriage over the past two years.
It is my hope in the new year to become a prayer & scripture warrior for him. I am learning that I can not wait on him to lead and teach me something new everyday. That we are all sinners and when you are always giving out spiritually and not taking in, eventually that tank is going to get empty! I feel like that is the place we are in now. Feeling like God is more of a job right now and the passion Brandon once had is being lost behind the day to day.
My hope for the new year is that I can become a light to my husband, reminding him of the passion and AMAZING ability he has to go people just as they are and reach him with God's word. If any of you have heard him speak or know him personally you know what I'm talking about. His ability to just lay the gospel out to anyone from a rich suburbanite to the homeless guy downtown, to the Muslim kids he works with daily....You know it has to be a God given talent.
So that is where I am, I hope you pray for us as the new year starts. That I could become that prayer warrior he needs and that Brandon can again have that closeness to God that made him seek out a life in ministry.
That being said here is my 1st passage to learn. I read it yesterday on the Desiring God blog. I think it is very appropriate for me. Someone who can be quick to anger at times.

This weeks passage is from 2 Timothy 2:22-26
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

I will be posting a new passage I'm learning every week. Feel free to follow along, and put on the words of God as a suit of armor.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just a sweet moment

No pictures in this one, just a sweet moment I want to jot down  so I won't forget.
The other night (Sunday) after dinner and a bath (which Noah learned how to squirt soap on his tummy and rub it, haha) we got all lotioned up. Then we let him play with just his diaper while the lotion dries and we read his Bible story for the night before his prayers. When Brandon started reading Noah was actually into it, he wanted to look at the pictures and then he crawled up into Brandon's lap. He sat there listening to the story while smiling & pointing out pictures on the page.
It just melted my heart watching Noah sit up there with his daddy listening to the story of David and Goliath, getting excited when Brandon points out pictures or acts out the story.
Of course Noah didn't stay up there long. Soon he was on the ground walking all over with his skinny legs  and talking 500 miles a minute. He gets so excited about who knows what and starts to stomp all over and giggle.
After his PJ's were on and prayers were said. Noah and I kissed daddy goodnight, rocked while he drank his bottle and then I layed him down, kissed him goodnight, and said I love you.
He just rolled over, curled up and went to sleep. I just love the fact that we get to watch this amazing little person realize about the amazing power of His Creator and the love Jesus has shown him.

Merry Christmas!

I haven't uploaded my Christmas pictures yet, but I just couldn't wait to try out Brandon's Christmas gift....The Flip. I had been checking it out for awhile & then heard some other people saying they used it not only for their kids, but also for their golf swing and kids at school. I thought what a perfect gift for the hubs! Thanks to my mom and Mike for getting it!
Here is my 1st attempt at getting a video on here. Its Noah with his favorite kind of toy....power tools!

 

Hope this works! Merry Christmas to all! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your families!

IM BACK!

Well here's hoping I am! I can't believe the last post I have was from a year ago, NUTS! Life with the Browns has been crazy but great over the past year & hopefully I get you all updated quickly. I have enlisted the help of a friend to show me how to put up a lot of picts in a smaller format & as soon as I get that down I will post what our last year has been like.
A quick run down of us over the year though: Noah is now almost 15months old (WHAT?!) and is doing amazing. He is constantly doing & saying new things, cracking us both up. I still can't believe that little miracle is mine!
Our house renovations are done and the house is up for sale!!! I can't wait to show you some before/after picts. We kept everything pretty neutral since we were putting it right up for sale, but Im still feeling lonely in my own house so I got the green light from the hubs to start decorating. YEA!!!!
Im still at St. Jude in the ICU. While difficult at times I still love it. Being there for these families is an amazing priviledge. Brandon is still at Multi National Ministries as the boys youth director. He is so talented & gifted for this job. I can't wait to see where it goes. He is also hoping to finish seminary sometime before the next decade.

But enough typing....on to the pictures! Here are Noah's 1 year picts from Ashleigh Peak Photography

Please remember to continue to pray for the Harrison's & to hug your babies tight. You can read Alicia's blog at threedoodles  

I wish you a merry christmas!

Last night Brandon and I were wrapping presents for his students and listening to Third Day's Christmas Offerings CD when I was struck by the last song on the cd. The song Merry Christmas inspired me to write a little note here in our blog to say merry christmas to our child, not Noah, but the child we have yet to meet. 


A long time ago before meeting Brandon I had felt a calling on my heart. The calling of adoption. Don't get me wrong...I always prayed I was able to have children one day, but I also felt that there are so many children out there without someone to love on them and tell them just how much God loves them. I knew that whoever I married had to share in this desire for our family and I was thrilled when Brandon was just as excited to adopt one day as I was. 
A year ago or so we were at A Weekend to Remember marriage retreat when one of the speakers told his story about adopting his children. The one part that has still stuck with me to this day was he spoke about their birth certificates. They had some problems with the paper work and finally had everything settled when they got the boys birth certificates in the mail and he noticed he and his wife's age on the birth certificate was wrong. Frustrated he called the agency and fixing the problem when the lady informed him there was no problem that was their ages when their boys where born. 
He said he began to think about what he was doing when he was that age & how selfish he was, not knowing that at that very same time his children were out in the world without someone to love & protect them. 


So to that child or children we have yet to meet I want to say: 
While you are not here right now, you have always been in my heart. We love you more than you will ever know and thank God for bringing you to us. I can't wait to tell you just how much our big and amazing God loves you. I pray you are safe right now whenever you are. Please stay strong and know this Christmas you are not forgotten. We love you very much! Merry Christmas my child!


Merry Christmas by Third Day: 
There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
There the forgotten are

But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow

But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
And we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his life
And prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

Noah's newborn picts!

Yes my child is almost three months and yes I am just now posting his newborn photos!

A few years ago I met some of Brandon's friends from Samford, one of them being Mrs Ashleigh Peak. Little did I know (or she know) that a few years later she would have an AMAZING photography gig and be taking picts of my cute naked baby! Check out her site http://www.ashleighpeak.com/

A little background on the photo session...it took around three hours for Noah to FINALLY pass out enough so we could move him around to get some picts. She was SOOO patient though and managed to get some amazing shots while I was holding him trying to get him to fall asleep.
In the photos where I am holding him by the crib, right after those picts we realized that he had pooped ALL down my shirt. No wonder he was so relaxed in the pictures. hehe! Hope you enjoy them!

 

The first month!

Here's a recap of our first month....
First, when you see Noah's newborn picts you will notice he looks like he got punched in the face! The poor thing actually had a reaction to his eye ointment. In the hospital they give all newborns erythromycin ointment BUT they were out for some reason and were using gentamycin ointment instead. I found out that one of the adverse reactions can be chemical burns to the skin, which he had. He started to have these HUGE blisters under his eyes our second night in the hospital. In the pictures you will see they had healed over and were drying up. POOR BABY! Thankfully there was no scarring. We DEFINITELY know it didn't affect his vision, the big guy stares at EVERYTHING!

 

Once we were home we started to try to settle in. Nursing was going well but we started to notice he was grunting ALL the time. We also started to notice that the "babies sleep 22 hours a day" concept was NOT our little man. He was up more than he was asleep. THANKFULLY Brandon's mom and my mom live close by so they would come over and take shifts walking Noah around to keep him from screaming. His poor little tummy....he would bring his little knees up to his chest and just scream!!! It was very hard to come home with your new baby not knowing what to expect and hear him scream every time you put him down. It was especially hard when I had friends with newborns and older baby who were already on schedules and already had their baby sleeping 5-7 hours at night. I spent the first 3 weeks of his life feeling like a failure. I finally found peace in my mother-in-law...Brandon's older brother, Wes, had terrible colic when he was little. Every time I felt like no one understood she would tell me stories about how she felt. It was so comforting to have someone echo the same thoughts and feelings I had. Anywho, back to the little guy....the first 4 weeks were spent sleeping 1-2 hours at a time and eating anywhere from every hour to every 3 hours. But after a while we started to get into a routine of getting up and switching off. The chaos became our norm!

While the sleeping and eating were crazy, we still had a lot of fun first!

First car ride. Going home from the hospital. Dad drove REALLY slow!

Noah meeting his cousin Naomi for the 1st time. She likes him as long as their Lolli isn't holding him and not her. (She is the princess!)

First game day with daddy. (They were REALLY into the game!) Notice the orange and white outfit Noah was sporting.

Napping in his bouncy seat. He wasn't even heavy enough to make the seat bounce. Such a little cutie!

First bottle with dad. We were very nervous he wouldn't take it, but there was NO hesitation. All he cared about was that it was food and he was hungry.

This is Noah's best friend, Mr. Giraffe. They spend time staring at each other on the changing table. Noah just kicks and giggles and talks to him forever on that table!

Dad and Noah were hanging on the coach together and Piper felt left out. She sat next to them all night. Every time Noah made a noise Piper was up and right there, checking on him. She is a very good big sis!

This is what Noah thinks of Piper and her kisses and barking! Seriously, he made this expression after Piper licked him. haha

My mom (Noah's na-na) went to change him and told me to run in there. I was FREAKING OUT wondering what happened to him. When I got there I saw this....NO MORE UMBILICAL CORD!

Noah's first bath. He did SOOOO good. He didn't cry until we got to his face and head. At first he just stared at us wondering what in the world we were doing to him. haha! After I wrapped him up he stopped crying and just stared with those big brown eyes!

This was after our first stroll in the neighborhood. He LOVES being outside. In the late morning we usually go in the backyard with Piper and sing hyms while slow dancing together. It is the BEST part of my day and warms my heart more than anything. How can I not help but sing praises to God when Im holding this perfect and healthy little miracle that God gave a sinner like me.

 Just a cute little picture of him sleeping on his Boppy pillow. 

Mandi, one of my old UT nursing buddies, had her bday in late October. We went over to our friends the Ransones' to watch the UT/Bama game and celebrate Mandi's day. Of course we cheered on UT to what turned out to be a sad ending to the game. Noah made sure he was in the right colors for his Aunt Mandi!

 

Here are the picts we took on the day he turned ONE MONTH! I had to wait for Brandon to get home so it was late when we finally got them. As you can tell he is moving in it too. We took a TON of them but he wouldn't hold still for a second so we just went with it. I have a feeling he is going to be a hyper guy! 

Well that is our first month! All in all it has been one sleepless, crazy, and joy filled month! I still can not believe I have this little miracle! God is good!